The Argentine set a new record with his 85th and 86th goals of the calendar year, overtaking the previous mark of 85 set by Gerd Muller back in 1972, and the French coach has sent his compliments to the 25-year-old.

“Congratulations to Messi. He is just mesmerizing. What he is doing is unbelievable," he told the Arsenal website.

"Even with the biggest imagination, I would not have thought somebody would be capable of doing that.

"He makes it look so easy to score, and we are all tempted to say ‘let us walk on this pitch and score goals’, because it looks so easy when he does it. When you have played football, you know how difficult it is to score one goal.

“To think that one player can score 86 per year, if you think you play nine and a half months, it’s nearly 10 goals guaranteed per month. When you start the month, you know this boy will give you 10 goals, that is not bad!”

Messi may extend his record even further before the turn of the year, with the Blaugrana scheduled to play four more times before the start of 2013.

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